Counting Thailand’s coups

1932 is usually described as the beginning of Thailand’s century-long coup season. Once upon a time when I sought to determine when this history of coups began I was surprised to find obscure references to aborted military interventions in national politics in 1912 and 1917. Long since forgotten.

Here on New Mandala we recently hosted a discussion about Thailand’s coup history where I suggested that counting the number of coups (attempted and successful) is a complicated business. Often, when somebody asks “how many coups have there been in Thailand?”, the final number that is cited is 18 but I fear that this may be a product of force of habit rather than hard number crunching.

So I wonder if the collective expertise of New Mandala readers might help us to more precisely tally up the total coup attempts, and successful coups, in Thai history. Keeping the focus on the 20th century will make matters simpler but I appreciate that some may want to introduce more historical depth. Just to get us started I have my (probably incomplete and inaccurate) list below.

It would be terrific if we could make the list definitive.

As it stands I have 11 “successful” and 9 “unsuccessful” coup efforts in the 20th century for a total of 20. For the more obscure episodes I have added links to other details. But it would be terrific if a final tally could be made, with all of the various categories of coup (plot, attempt, success; to include р╕Бр╕Ър╕П, р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Ыр╕гр╕░р╕лр╕▓р╕г, р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Ыр╕гр╕░р╕лр╕▓р╕гр╣Ар╕Зр╕╡р╕вр╕Ъ, etc) matched against their historical details. Definitional issues are, of course, at stake but we are happy to hear discussion on all of the technical points that matter.

Please share your knowledge to help us count Thailand’s military coups once-and-for-all. As new information is added in comments I can put it in this main list which can be revised as often as we like.

36 Responses

I would add Phya Mano’s self-coup in April 1933 in the “successful” category. Might be more contentious to say that there was another such “self-coup” in April 2010. The Boworadet rebellion in October 1933 should be in the unsuccessful attempts.

At the beginning of 1976 and at the beginning of 1980 military pressure forced out prime ministers in “silent coups”. The former resulted in new elections; the latter saw Prem take power for 8 years. Should at least 1980 not be included in this list?

In the missionary records located at the Payap University archives, I found information about a rebellion in Northern Thailand in 1902. The church’s “neutral” stance actually sided with Siam. I looked it up and found this reference:

“Phraya Chaiyabun Monument This monument is located 4 kms. from Phrae Market, being constructed as a memorial to Phraya Chaiyabun who was the governor of Muang Phrae, during the reign of King Rama V, and was killed by the Ngiew tribal people because he did not agree to set his hand in a document giving out Muang Phrae to the Ngiew during the Ngiew rebellion in the year 1902 A.D.”

Reference to a Hmong rebellion in 1967-1968 (Baker, 175) actually is a reference to a movement in Pitsanulok, Luy, Petchabun and Phrae where a group was based in Phu Hin Rong Klao.

The elder of a church who was part of that rebellion including the defence of Kao Ko (р╣Ар╕Вр╕▓р╕Др╣Йр╕н) took me around these locations. The leader at Phu Hin Rong Klao was actually communist leader from the South. The Thai government troops lost in most battles and skirmishes, but used Chinese mercenaries effectively and eventually squeezed the rebels economically into submission. The Hmong who surrendered were “reeducated.” After returning to their villages, they found that their people had become Christians. The church elder I talked to said in so many words: I was surprised and asked “What is a Christian?” They told me they teach us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Oh? That’s what the communists said, but the only difference is that Christians don’t get killed. So I became a Christian too.”

Are we getting anywhere with this list? why I made my two posts is because the coups are not only a matter of palace intrigue and corruption of state, but they effect the people.

Thai social movements, although less prominent, can turn violent as all other avenues for peaceful change are exhausted. Thailand in 2010 was at a crossroads.

Participants in former social movements squashed by the Thai military (ex., Kao Ko Monument glorifies Air Force General Arthit Kamlangeak) tend to seek new bases and forms for resistance. I assume it ruffles someone’s feathers that in the case of the Hmong in
Thailand, Christianity offered a new base. That is a fact. If you want to bear that out statistically, look at the statistics of the 12th District of the Church of Christ in Thailand. or look herehttp://www.christiansiam.com/Church/Country/North/Phetchabun.html It compares the number of Hmong in Thailand who were Christians before 1960 (0) and after 1980 with the emergence of 45 new churches. It was Hmong Christians from Laos who held this discussion with their Thai kin at that time. There were no foreign or Thai missionaries active there at the time. Similar movement of social resistance to Thai government appeared among the Northern Thai groups I worked with for 15 years. Why resist? Land grabs, deforestation, lack of educational opportunities and other forms of state-sponsored repression (ex., local officials refusing to provide identification cards to people who have lived there for 100 years)

I think that the residue of injustice and resistance scattered across the North and Northeast explains why the Red Shirts could emerge so quickly and powerfully, yet still have disparate agendas among the participating groups. These forms of collective memory of Thai people are interesting to me but certainly not surprising. Those who try to say that the Red Shirts are merely pro-Thaksin have no historical memory.

I really want to contribute something here but my knowledge is limited to what already been said. Furthermore, there are those “silent upraise” or “silent coup” events that have very little documentation to the point where I think its almost suit the description of rumor rather than actual event. Like what polo said, during early 1980s there were so many of such attempt but very little documentation.

Hi Don – we used to work together at Mahidol U. Somewhat tangentially to the main discussion, I would like to say that IMO Thailand hasn’t had a good government for 40 years i.e. not since PM M.R. Kukrit Pramoj.

Wikipedia defines “A coup d’état, also known as a coup, a putsch, or an overthrow, is the sudden deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment–typically the military–to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civil or military.”

In other words, illegitimate overthrows of a legitimate government are by no means restricted to military coups. Hence, I would also count the judicial coup of 2008 (and others in the past?).

I think it is not too wise to quote coups from wikipedia as I have read the causes to one of the coup does not really reflected in one of the literature I read, ‘a history of Thailand’ by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaicit. CMIIW.

[…] place to shoot a film on a military takeover. The usual estimate of military interventions is something like 20, although we would exclude both the 1932 Revolution and 1933 Boworadej Rebellion as putsches. Some […]

[…] that has had an estimated twenty Coup D’état attempts in the last 101 years with a debatable scorecard estimating 11 successful coups and 9 failed coups. Since 2005, protest movements and political […]

[…] So what next? Suthep has now taken to threatening PM Yingluck’s 11year old son from the protest stage whilst his acolytes have said they will lead a mob to ‘storm’ the US Embassy. The PDRC, who have vowed to stop the February 2014 general election, still rely on the support of Abhisit’s Democrats who look increasingly likely to boycott the elections. And, waiting in the wings, is the notoriously coup-happy Thai Army. […]

[…] this coming year. At the least the country will see more clashes across Bangkok, very possibly a coup, and at the worst there is potential for a much more violent conflict.. Either way this story heads […]

[…] (or not), a long-time strategic partner of the United States, and a long-time, though coup-prone (18 total, 11 successful, and counting, or not) democracy, is having another political meltdown. Here, I’m not going […]

In 1932 a few months before the successful coup some army officers tried to poison the food of Rama VI. Prince Chulabonse, his younger brother and designated successor got it instead and died a few weeks later along with two or three others. The king refused to take the attempt on his life seriously and none of the suspects were arrested.

…And lets not forget the original coup that started the Rattanakosin Kingdom. The current rulers are the descendants of military leaders usurping the King and then creating a mythical context for doing it.

Hi Nicholas, since the declaration of Martial law on monday of this week, I’ve been pondering the same variability of “coup counts” that you outline in the beginning of this article, and started doing some research. this article and its comments was one of the sources that I found and the most useful. the results of merging the info on this article with many other sources is summarised in a post on my blog. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

As a footnote – a couple of minor historical errors in the postings of two contributors to this thread should be pointed out:

@ Donald Persons – In the mid 80s General Arthit Kamlang-ek was both army commander and Supreme Commander – the man was no Air Force General;

@ Thaibeaver – ‘In 1932 a few months before the successful coup some army officers tried to poison the food of Rama VI.’ What is your source for this particular howler? Rama VI – or King Vajiravudh – passed away back in 1925 (BTW are you male and is your moniker a bad joke?)

On the other side of the fence – a very interesting comment by James Quilty.

About the Author

Dr Nicholas Farrelly is the co-founder of New Mandala. A graduate of the Australian National University and the University of Oxford, over the past 20 years he has undertaken research in Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and India. Nicholas is a Deputy Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University, where he also leads the ANU Myanmar Research Centre.